280 



LANDSCAPE DESIGN 



Professional 

 Advice in Land 

 Subdivision 



Procedure in 

 Design 



Choice of Type 

 of Development 

 in Relation to 

 Development of 

 City 



development does, until it comes again to the in-town development of 

 apartment houses or houses in block, the essential difference from the 

 low-cost development on similar land lying in the number of people 

 housed per square foot of ground area. High-cost suburban land 

 development * plainly offers to the landscape architect as an artist 

 greater opportunities than does the low-cost development, since more 

 money may be spent on amenity and beauty. If the landscape architect 

 looks upon his work from the point of view of social betterment, how- 

 ever, his greater opportunity for public service lies in the low-cost 

 development. 



The landscape architect is of service to those interested in the 

 development of land for residential purposes primarily through his 

 knowledge of the various kinds of outdoor beauty and utility and of 

 the means whereby they can be economically produced ; but any land- 

 scape architect should learn through practice enough about the effect 

 which is produced on land values by different types of development to 

 make his advice and cooperation worth seeking also in questions of 

 adapting means to ends on the financial side. In the larger land sub- 

 division schemes in this country, it is common for two kinds of pro- 

 fessional advisers to cooperate on the general design : the real estate 

 man who knows what the public expects in residential land, what the 

 public will pay, what other land is being sold in competition, and how a 

 selling campaign may be managed ; and another professional adviser, 

 often a landscape architect, who has the technical skill and the expe 

 rience to produce from the land the maximum of salable utility and 

 beauty at the least cost. 



It is evident that in determining on the design all the general con- 

 siderations which we have mentioned must be taken into account, and 

 the best design will not be produced until the most effective compromise 

 has been reached among their conflicting claims. 



The first decision should be to determine, as far as is possible with 

 the data at hand, what part the land is to play in its relation to the 

 future city. A great deal of harm has been done to our cities by un- 

 regulated development of private land for local use only, to the detri- 

 ment of any possible convenient general scheme. This is true not only 

 * For instance, see Book of Pictures of Roland Park, Baltimore, Md., 1911. 



